UBC President and Vice-Chancellor Stephen Toope (r), along with Vice President, Students Louise Cowin and Sauder School of Business Dean Robert Helsley (l), discuss general findings from a report and proposed measures to be taken following offensive frosh event, at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, September 18, 2013.Nick Procaylo
/ PNG

UBC Sauder school of Business graffiti: Long before controversial frosh-week chants seeming to endorse non-consensual sex surfaced this past week at the University of British Columbia and St. Mary’s University in Halifax, post-secondary institutions across Canada were wrestling with what many student leaders and educators say is a pervasive “rape culture.”Reddit / Sauderite
/ Postmedia News

VANCOUVER -- The investigation into a rape chant by University of B.C. commerce students has turned up other disturbing incidents on campus, university president Stephen Toope says.

Toope said Wednesday that there have been allegations that another chant was insulting to First Nations, that underage students were drinking alcohol at frosh events, some to excess, and that some frosh activities were "overly sexualized," including semi-nudity and students being asked to strip.

Toope said investigations will be held into those allegations.

He blamed the incidents on the "casual sexualization and violence" that are part of pop culture and that appear to be spilling over into the university environment.

He said the investigation confirmed that new students at the Sauder School of Business were encouraged to sing a chant that promoted sex with underage girls. The students were on a bus during an orientation event over the Sept. 1 weekend. They were told by student leaders not to videotape the chanting or share information on social media, which the investigation report interprets to mean that the leaders knew the chant was inappropriate and offensive.

Toope said the Commerce Undergraduate Society at the University of B.C. will make a "voluntary contribution" of $250,000 over three years after the "rape chant" during frosh week earlier this month. The money will partly fund a new staff member — possibly a psychologist or a social worker — to provide student counselling and education on sexual abuse and violence. The university will also contribute to this position.

The Society's $1.3 million annual budget is completely funded through student fees

The rape chant first came to light after a student tweeted the chant: It began "Y-O-U-N-G at UBC, we like 'em young," and went on to talk about underage sisters, sex and lack of consent.

Four Commerce society leaders have resigned and a further 81 students will do community service, including frosh leaders and executive members, the society board of directors and executive council members.

The Commerce society will issue a public apology, its leaders will participate in training about sexual violence, and the Sauder school will no longer support society frosh events, the university said in a news release.

Toope is also taking a long-term approach in efforts to ensure such chants don't happen again.

"UBC is seizing this moment to strike at the violence, sexualization and discrimination that still lurks below the surface in pockets of our society," Toope said, adding that the university would set up a task force to address "deeper systemic and organizational issues."

The investigation included interviewing 62 students and four UBC employees. That revealed the frosh rape chant had been going on for several years and has been used at other universities and even in high schools.

"I believe that these are deep cultural and social phenomenon that are far beyond the walls of any university," Toope said.

The words "embarrassed," "ashamed," "mortified," and "disappointed" were regularly used in the interviews to describe how students felt about not having identified the chants as being hurtful and not stopping them, the report states.

"The bus cheers were taboo, a naughty thing that you got to do . . . a way to loosen up. It made you feel less apprehensive . . . it was our own thing . . . it allowed people to come out of their shell," one of the students told the investigation.

"It's a brotherhood type of thing, an inside thing, it's inclusive in that others would not know about it," another student told the investigators.

A first-year bachelor of commerce student said, "I was hesitant to participate in [the chant] but when a leader does it, it seems like a rite of passage."

Toope said underage drinking and sexualized activities are issues of great concern and he expressed dismay over the derogatory chant about aboriginal issues, the announcement of which occurred the same day the university cancelled classes to encourage students to attend the First Nations' Truth and Reconciliation Commission events at the Pacific National Exhibition grounds.

"It's certainly ironic and it's not something I would have wished for," Toope said, adding that the university doesn't know a lot about the incident yet.

"As soon as we know more we will act with the due seriousness that this requires."

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